


Soup (that's it, that's the title)

by Miramise



Series: I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends [12]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: Chris means well, Fluff, M/M, Post RE6, Sickfic, no beta we die like men, not a lot on the sick part though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22199905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miramise/pseuds/Miramise
Summary: Leon is sick.  Nothing big; it's just a wee cold.  Chris however has very strict ideas on how to treat a sick person.  He means well, but Leon clues him in on a better approach.
Relationships: Leon S. Kennedy/Chris Redfield
Series: I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1403842
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Soup (that's it, that's the title)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anyonesguess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anyonesguess/gifts).



> Part of a small secret santa exchange. Anyonesguess, hope you like it! |ω・）

Through his life and the many friends and acquaintances he's made over the years, Chris can say with certainty that there are two types of people in the world. One group are the people who, when they get sick, cannot function, period. Everything is impossible and it's fine if they're left to die because they feel like they will at any moment. These people are a pain because they're the ones who will ring the figurative bell every five minutes and whoever is the unlucky bastard having to deal with them has already thought of ten ways to make it either look like the illness killed them or make it look like an accident.

Chris is ashamed to admit he is likely in that group. Claire has made those plans because of him on more than a few occasions. So has Jill. The only reason Rebecca never has is she's the type to pin people down into bed if they so much as sniffle wrong around her. No surprise Chris tries to go to her first whenever he's down with a cold.

Then there's the other group. The ones you want to kill for a different reason altogether. The ones who refuse to admit they are sick, even when they've hacked up their liver, both kidneys, and a lung. They're the ones who go into work with a one-hundred and three-degree fever and wonder why they can't see the computer screen right. The ones who if you don't strap them down will keep going like they are _perfectly_ fine when they _obviously are not_.

"Leon, if you get up one more time I swear to any gods still hanging around that I will tie your ass down in it."

"...kinky."

That was the group his soon-to-be-unlawfully-detained boyfriend belonged to.

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose. It was the fourth time he'd caught Leon up and about despite telling the younger man that he needed to lay down and rest. And, except for the first time, each instance was something he could have gotten or done for the blond if he would just _stay in the fucking bed_.

The _first_ instance he barely managed to keep Leon from going into work. Honestly, who else would think it was a good idea to go to work after doing an impression of a cat harking up a hairball? Who else would do that while forgetting sometimes work involved dealing with _viruses_? Chris wasn't a doctor, but he was pretty sure putting someone with a cold around the B.O.W. viruses was just asking for an apocalypse.

Though when it came to people accidentally causing the end of the world, Leon was in the top three on Chris's list.

"Leon, please, would you just—"

"No, listen! If I'm going to be stuck in here then I'm going to get comfortable, and lying around in my bed without the proper gear is not comfortable."

The captain had no idea what kind of 'gear' would be needed for a cold and wondered if this was double-talk for Leon to try and go into work still. "I don't know—"

"Well obviously you don't, but we're going to fix that. Just scooch out the way and learn from a master. We'll have you playing nurse like a pro in no time." Leon then hip-checked Chris out the way and went into the kitchen. Growling, Chris followed him, only to stop and sigh when he saw what Leon was doing.

"If you wanted soup, you should've just told me."

"It's more than soup, goofball. Dealing with a cold is so much more than that." As he talked, Leon opened a can of soup and dumped it in a mug. Next, he went through his cabinets and pulled out a few ground herbs, then checked his fridge to get a few extra things to toss in. A few quick stirs, then the mug was shoved into the microwave. "Lesson one, if using a microwave instead of a stove, I prefer to cut the power in half and double the time." He broke off the impromptu lesson to grab a paper towel to sneeze into. "Yuck."

"Okay, fine, I get it. You still don't trust me in the kitchen but I can make soup, dammit!" Not that Chris had any idea of what Leon tossed in the bowl just then, but it couldn't have been that much. "And I certainly know how to get a mug out the microwave. So just go lay down already!"

"Not yet." Leon ignored the brunet groaning and pulling at his hair. "Just trust me and go grab some blankets and pillows out the linen closet and put them on the couch." He paused to grab a few more paper towels to cover the sneezing fit that hit him. "Again, yuck."

Chris wanted to protest. The words were riding on the tip of his tongue. Sadly, nobody had told him how despite appearing both flushed and wan, Leon could still give a look that made one think death was imminent. The older man grumbled but did as told. He dumped the bedding on one end of the couch before he heard a raspy voice from the kitchen.

"Spread 'em out, Redfield. Dumping them will mean _I'll_ have to do it."

Okay, yes, he hadn't thought of that, but Chris didn't think any of this was a good idea. There was a perfectly functional bed in the other room. Leon should be in that while Chris sat in the living room and just checked on him every fifteen minutes or so. Lying on the couch seemed counter-productive.

Then again, Chris admitted he wasn't seen as the 'dad' type, so maybe Leon knew something he himself didn't.

Chris finished spreading the blankets out just as Leon slowly walked in with the mug of soup still steaming hot from the microwave. The captain nearly snatched it from him but pulled up short at the glare he received.

"Don't grab things too quickly. Being sick makes a person's coordination tank." He then passed the mug to Chris before flopping down on the couch. He reached for one of the covers, but Chris had placed the mug down on the coffee table which allowed him to adjust the blankets on Leon. He draped one over Leon's lap and legs, the other he pulled around the blond's shoulders.

Leon beamed at him. "See, you're starting to get the hang of it." The blond shifted and settled deeper into the back of the couch. "Now we need mindless entertainment. Actually, scratch that. I need cartoons."

Chris was reaching for the remote when he froze, doing did a double-take. "Did... did you say _cartoons_?" He had to have heard that wrong. Mister very-serious-secret-agent wanted to watch _cartoons_? The poster-child for mood-swings? Really?

Though in hindsight, Chris felt that to be an unkind thought. Leon was only moody because of what he'd been coerced into doing for a living and thought about everything that had cost him. But when he wasn't on missions, and the group could pull him out of his hidey-hole, Leon could be content. Happy even, if Chris was lucky.

But still, _cartoons_?

Who was this imposter, and where had he taken his brooding, moody lover.

Leon noticed the silence. He frowned at the confusion marring the brunet's face when he glanced in Chris's direction. "Are we going to have a problem? Because if you have an issue with Looney Toons, I may have to rethink this relationship."

Ah, _there_ was his moody lover.

"Not a problem. Just never figured you as a cartoon kind of guy. Though I suppose Looney Toons makes sense." Seeing the blond's growing ire, Chris held his hands up in surrender. "I just mean they're considered classics, right? You seem like the type who would like classic media, including 'toons."

"Nice save, but you're walking a really thin line, Redfield." Leon hmph'ed before settling down again. "Just turn the tv on already. I need some Bugs Bunny in my life."

Chris did as ordered. He realised a shade too late that Leon obviously took his Looney Toons _quite_ seriously. Do not insult the man's cartoons. Got it. Then he thought about what Leon said.

"Bugs? I'd have taken you for a Sylvester and Twee—" The captain went dead still at the spoon suddenly held in front of his face. It was a plastic sort, yet somehow he felt his life threatened with the way Leon was holding it.

"That bird should've been roasted a long time ago. Even then the only meat you'd get is his annoying brain. So think carefully on if you want to finish that sentence."

Yup, Leon took his cartoons with _utmost_ seriousness.

"No mentioning yellow birds, gotcha." Once he had it on the right channel, Chris sat back on the couch as well. He didn't mind Looney Toons, can sort of remember watching it himself as a kid. But his mind was preoccupied too much to focus on the colourful antics on the screen. Leon saw how silent Chris was, then struggled to stifle a laugh when he could see the captain pouting.

"S-something on your mind?"

Chris hummed once, then sighed. Hard as it was sometimes, he could hear Claire telling him talking avoided misunderstandings, 'even over stupid shit' as she pointed out. This felt silly to Chris, but it was going to bug him, so he might as well talk.

"You don't... _didn't_ really need me around today," he got out. Once he said it, he believed it even more. Chris had to be walked through how to take care of a sick Leon, by the blond himself. He thought bed rest and medicine were the appropriate steps, but Chris couldn't deny Leon looked a lot less miserable being on the couch and watching cartoons while eating soup. The brunet felt useless in hindsight.

A mumbled 'oh brother' pulled Chris up short. He frowned upon seeing Leon shake his head. "What?"

"There are different ways of taking care of someone, just like there are different types of needs." Leon waved his mug around the room. "There's no one size fits all. You have to feel it out, or better yet, just ask the person you're helping. They'll tell you what they feel up to doing."

And now he felt dumb, because not once had Chris ever asked Leon what he wanted. He really should know by now that assumptions were not to be had when it came to Leon.

Before he could beat himself up further, Chris felt a light tug to his hair. He hissed and turned to the culprit. "Hey!"

"Have to stop you from brooding." Leon let go with a sigh. "Sometimes, it's not even about treatments or meds or anything. Some people just don't want to be alone when they don't feel well."

Suddenly it all clicked. The times Leon kept getting up. Why he insisted on the couch. Chris felt like smacking himself but opted not to. "I'm sorry," he offered instead. "I thought just staying in bed and taking the meds would just make this go away sooner. I... didn't think about how being confined would make you feel." The smile blooming on the younger man's face confused Chris. "What?"

Leon chuckled and gently rapped his knuckles against the brunet's arm. "See, I knew you could get it." He then set his soup down and reached under the coffee table to pull out a box. He flipped it open to reveal a bunch of medical masks and handed one to Chris. "Here, put that on. Hopefully you won't catch anything from me."

Still confused, Chris did as told. "Okay, but don't see why—oh." He went silent as Leon lays his head on Chris's shoulder, the blond hair ridiculously soft where it touched the captain's bare skin. He decided this is a much better treatment plan and joined Leon in watching a few cartoons.

"Still wouldn't have figured you for Bugs," Chris said after a bit, "though the more I see him, the more it makes sense." Leon made a questioning noise, prompting Chris to add, "You both are very sassy when you want to be."

"He's my role model," Leon shamelessly admitted. "But tell me, did the BSAA's golden boy have any cartoons he liked as a kid?" The unsubtle cough and sudden shifting only piqued Leon's curiosity. "Alright, Redfield, spill."

He didn't want to, but Chris was quite familiar with Leon's tactics and figured it easier for both of them to just give in. "I looked at a lot of action cartoons. ...He-man was my favourite." Chris ran a hand over his face. He fully expected to be laughed at, but when the only thing he got was silence Chris moved his hand away. The thoughtful expression Leon wore incited an entirely different fear in the captain.

"Hm, I bet I could get you a He-man costume. Probably online now. We'll have to get your measurements."

That... wasn't what the brunet was expecting. "Isn't it a little early to be thinking about next Halloween?"

Leon merely smiled and leaned closer. "I figured I could find a Teela outfit for myself to match." His grin turned salacious when he added, "Oh, and I wasn't thinking of Halloween _at all_."

Chris blinked. _'Not Halloween? What other reason would we need...'_ Suddenly his body went into a state with part of his blood rushing to his cheeks, while most of it traveled south. The blond chuckled when he saw Chris finally understood and curled up along the brunet's side.

And if he overheard Chris mumbling about buying a lot more soup, well, Leon just considered his other mission successful as well. Because sick or healthy, one could never have too much soup.

♡


End file.
